Permanency, prudence and virtu in Machiavellis The Prince

• Grant number: 15/24909-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2016
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Yara Adario Frateschi
• Grantee: Otávio Vasconcelos Vieira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present project aims a study on the role and depiction of the concept of virtù in Machiavelli's The Prince. Departing from an analysis of chapters I to VII and chapter XXV, we show that virtù has the function of describing a political action that is favorable to the maintenance of principalities. Machiavelli, examining the effectiveness of ways of acting which aim the maintenance of principalities, exposes virtù as a possible and desirable way of acting which expresses its effectiveness in certain contexts. Distinctly from prudence, that is efficient in contexts in which established custom corroborates the maintenance of the principality, virtù is effective against fortune and its characteristic instability. Thus, suiting itself to the extraordinary conditions of fortune, virtù appears as an audacious and impetuous behavior. Our research is divided into three steps. [1] We show first that the discussion on the maintenance of principalities imply a study about the ways of political acting and their contexts. [2] Then, we proceed to show that the latter mentioned discussion considers the specific difficulties according to various political conditions as well as the suitable ways of acting to overcome them. These difficulties grow stronger when the relationship between the established custom and the prince safety is turbulent. Thus, two ways of acting are considered: acting prudently, when the established custom corroborates the prince's power and hence should be preserved; and acting with virtù, when the established custom threaten the prince's power and should be confronted. [3] Once we have located the concept of virtù within the discussion proposed by Machiavelli, we proceed to show how this concept is characterized and expressed along the chapters we are studying as well as the relation between this concept and that of fortune.